Safe
by My Little Big Blue Box
Summary: Set in the early hours of May 3rd, following the final battle. Harry and Ginny reunite. The time for words is later, for now, its time to rest. A very short oneshot.


**Safe**

When Ginny had sidled up beside him, he didn't know but once Harry spotted her, he just couldn't look away. He didn't want to. He didn't think he'd be able to look at anything or anyone again, he wouldn't need to.

Harry had quietly made his exit from the castle a while ago and it was only now that he noticed that the sun had started to rise.

It was over. It was a new day and everything leading him to it had ended. All the battles and fights and skirmishes and _wars_ were over and yet he could still feel the pressured weight of it all on his shoulders, heavier than ever. What did he do now? The last few years had led him to the ultimate duel and now it was complete. What was his purpose now? He wasn't needed anymore.

He wondered if that feeling would ever dissipate, if he would ever feel normal again. Then he wondered what normal actually felt like; he probably wouldn't know if it slapped him in the face.

All the trouble of the last few years had been brought on by him and only him. As soon as he had stepped foot on the Hogwarts Express all those years ago, a storm had hit Harry and everyone close to him and now look; Hogwarts was damaged beyond believe, a mound of rubble and dust beneath his feet and dead bodies – friends, people he cared about - lay strewn across the castle, cold and pale and still.

Looking at her now, Harry could see how the battle had worn on Ginny and pondered whether the year had been as hard for her without him, as it had for him without her.

Her face was stained with muck and her long red hair was knotted with dirt. He briefly noted that her hair seemed longer than it had been before he'd left. Tears tracked through the grime, the usual fire in her eyes dwindling more and more with every second.

Another tear escaped her and Harry instinctively found his hand rising, his bruised knuckle brushing it away.

Ginny flinched.

She looked to him, sudden and sharp and in that moment, Harry swore he saw something spark back to life in depths of her brown eyes.

"You look so tired."

She sounded it.

Her voice was just loud enough to hear, a croak over the rush of the wind.

"It's been a long day. Very long."

"More like a long year," Ginny opposed, sourly.

"Ginny, I-"

"Harry, don't," She scrambled to her feet and looked down at him, "Just not now, okay." It wasn't a question but before she looked away he nodded anyway.

A sticky silence surrounded them as they both watched the sky slowly brighten, shades of blue they'd never seen.

Seconds, minutes past before Ginny's hand slowly crept further into Harry's periphery. He looked at it and then at her and back at it.

"Come on," She rasped, shaking her hand and indicating for him to take it.

He took it and followed her, his hand tingling with the feeling of Ginny's in it.

He swiftly found himself back inside the castle confides, minding every step he took, trying not to fall over the fallen debris. Pictures were fallen and the people depicted within them flitted from frame to frame, panicked and distressed.

"Ginny, whe-"

"Just trust me, okay," Of course he did, so he quickened his pace to come beside her, moving his hand in hers until their fingers were intertwined. The move made her pause in her step and look.

"I'm so-"

"Don't be," She interrupted quickly and Harry thought he saw her lips twitch upwards for a brief instant.

They continued on and Harry soon found himself in the still so familiar corridor before the Gryffindor common room; the Fat Lady was absent from her picture and the door was hanging on its hinges, ready to fall at anytime; a password was useless.

She continued to lead the way, the steps to the dormitories in view and slowly she took the stairs to the boys' quarters.

"Ginny, you're not sup-"

"Do you really think anybody cares?"

"Good point," He conceded, letting her take him wherever she wished.

She stopped outside a familiar door and once inside, his eyes automatically drifted to his long missed bed. It seemed that the dorms had managed to miss the assault on the rest of the school.

"Which is yours?" She asked.

He pointed limply to the centre bed, untouched and freshly made.

Ginny's hand fell from his and she set her self on the bed's edge, tapping the spot beside her.

He sat beside her without hesitation, suddenly feeling utterly and completely shattered.

Ginny looked at him with a sad smile and extracted his wand from his battered and burnt hands and placed it on top of the chest of drawers. He'd been holding it for so long that he'd forgotten it was even there.

She slowly and carefully extracted his glasses from his face and almost laughed as his forehead creased and his eyes lost focus.

"Lie down," She instructed.

He hadn't been so eager to do anything else.

Toeing off his shoes and throwing off his jacket, he did as he was told and audibly sighed as he blindly collapsed onto his pillows, his eyes already drooping.

He felt the back of her hand grace his cheek, slowly and appreciatively.

"Oh, Gin," He sighed again.

"Shove up."

Dazed, Harry complied, budging to the furthest edge of the bed and felt the bed dip beside him. A few strands of hair fell by his nose and there was the unmistakeable flowery smell of Ginny filling his nostrils.

Ginny reached behind her and Harry found his arm being pulled from his side to around her waist, her hand grasping at his once more and pulling his grazed knuckles to her lips.

Harry moved back towards the centre of the bed, meeting her back with his chest and his head firmly delved into the deepest contour of her neck, breathing her in.

Her voice quickly reached his dozing ears, "I know that we have Merlin knows how much to talk about but just promise me one thing?"

"Anything," He replied earnestly, because for her he would do absolutely anything.

"Whatever happens between us in the future, promise you won't leave like that again. I don't care how noble you're trying to be or if the world is about to spontaneously combust... I need to know you are safe, Harry. Just promise me you won't leave again."

"Never again. I promise."

And for the first time in months, Harry felt safe, as he closed his eyes and the world around him faded, with visions of red hair and brown eyes possessing his every thought.

**A.N. So, a very brief and short bit of Harry and Ginny for you. Nothing much else to say.**

**Thoughts, please?**

**Happy reading,**

**Jessica.**


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